A late pass with six laps to go
Joey Logano waited for the final restart to make his move. Running fourth when the green flag flew again, the Team Penske driver dived to the inside on lap 494 of 500 and swept past Carson Hocevar, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Larson in one shot. The Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol was settled there and then.
Gibbs had been in control. The Toyota driver led 120 laps and survived a three-wide scrap at the stripe on lap 432, sandwiched between Alex Bowman and Cole Custer. Bowman was done for the night. Gibbs kept rolling at the same pace, then folded under the pressure. He finished fifth.
Logano led 93 laps across two stints. It was his third win at the half-mile concrete bullring, his third of the season and the 40th of his Cup Series career. He moves level with Mark Martin in 20th on the all-time wins list.
Try it for $0.99.
Blaney and Hocevar come to blows
While Logano was celebrating on the frontstretch, pit road was kicking off. Ryan Blaney had led 202 laps, the biggest total of the night. He had just retaken second from Hocevar on lap 457 when he dropped low to block. Hocevar refused to lift. Blaney hit the outside wall in turn 1 and ended up 33rd.
The argument carried on after the checkered flag. Blaney shoved Hocevar in the shoulder, took two shots back, went down, got up and landed a left hand to the face before officials broke it up.
“I gave him room the lap before. I didn’t crowd him. He chose to be there, he didn’t lift and he took me out,” Blaney said. Hocevar, who finished third, shrugged it off: “They got an old-school Bristol show.”
Larson takes the lead in the Chase
Runner-up Kyle Larson takes control of the championship by one point from Denny Hamlin, who finished eighth. Larson remains the only driver with three top-five finishes from the opening three rounds of the Chase.
Logano climbs four spots to third, 16 points back. Blaney drops to sixth, 52 points off the pace. Christopher Bell is fourth, 17 points adrift. Josh Berry, who finished sixth, is the only non-Chase driver inside the top 11.
Next up is September 27 at Kansas Speedway.
Discover the rest of the NASCAR news on our mathodds site and app!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply